My ETD is..............

[Leslie Bartlett]

I'm one of the little guys who just tries to make a buck, but I discovered
at an NRA show where I purchased a $200 toy used for hunters to hear game
run that I had hearing loss.  No wonder I have had troubles tuning!  So I
dutifully went to my audiologist and she put me in these horribly expensive
digital things which just didn't do the trick. I went back and whined and
all she had were more expensive digital toys……………….. Ugh! But I put them in
and in five seconds knew I had to have them.  They have four programs, three
microphones, and within each program are sixteen programmable bands of sound
which are adjusted after the initial adjustments are made by computer from
the results of the audiogram.  She has become rather obsessive in her
attempts to make these things which weren't designed really for what we do.
There are so many programming options that my head swims.  I have program
and volume control, and my tuning/singing program has absolutely no
compression, so that I am in complete control of every dynamic nuance.  They
aren't perfect, and every day I am reminded that I am "handicapped"………  But
with Tunelab I am pretty comfortable with my tunings. Actually, Houston
Symphony, Conroe Symphony, John Tesh, Okga Kern and a few others have put up
with my hearing aids.   The Ahn Trio and Paul Anka were quite satisfied with
my aural tunings.   I actually go into tunings with some faith in myself
now.  The toys I have are incredibly expensive- unreasonably so.  Some of
that is hearing aid companies, and I think it is immoral to deny decent
hearing to the masses.  But we are stuck in a niche market with very
specialized needs, and we'll be that last to have really affordable
technology.  On the other hand, I have been immensely aided by a highly
competent and caring audiologist.  We have made changes at least five times,
and she has spent hours on the phone with the hearing aid company finding
how to tweak the things more specifically to my very specialized needs.   As
an added benefit, I have been able to go back to singing.  There is a thing
called "singers formant"- in all the pedagogy books, and I "knew" about it.
It is a non pitch specific "ring" at about 3000hz, which literally guides
the voice into its proper groove.  The first day I had my hearing aids,
having not sung in two years, I had a strange notion to sing a thing or two.
Members of my small choir stood about after rehearsal, and all commented,
"What on earth happened to your voice?  You have never sung that well
before."  It was simply the addition of that "formant" or "partial" which is
now programmed into my hearing aids.      Health is too darned expensive,
but the alternatives are more bleak.  I will be forever grateful to have
found an audiologist who cares (a friend got one who does NOT care, with
disasterous results), and that is worth some of my tuning bucks………
Les Bartlett
Houston

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